Casares named local IT Woman of the Year

The Upstate New York chapter of the Association of Women in Computing named Jeanne Casares, RIT chief information officer, as the 2010 IT Woman of the Year at the organization’s annual breakfast April 29. The award recognizes achievements and contributions to the information technology profession.

Prior to coming to RIT, Casares worked at Paychex where she served as an operations manager in its client services area. Trained in marketing and human resource systems, Casares said she had not considered IT until asked to research a new technology just making an impact on businesses at the time.

“In 1994, my manager asked me to look into this World Wide Web-thing, to see if it there was any value in it for Paychex,” she recalled. “I wasn't, at the time, interested in technology. Little did I know how that assignment would change the course of my career.”

Her IT teams built and deployed the first company websites and intranets for Paychex clients and employees. She organized a Web content development program, which included document management, publishing tools, Web analytics and reporting.

Since Casares joined RIT in 2008 as CIO, Information Technology Services has deployed state-of-the-art wireless systems across the university, after completing major upgrades to the e-mail system.

“IT is a dynamic field,” she says. “It is exciting today and will become even more compelling tomorrow, and women are an important part of the future of IT.”